Seven laps between Rome’s hills
Walk Rome’s former racecourse between the Palatine and Aventine hills and discover how charioteers took the turns, racing factions won followers and emperors courted the crowds.
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Rome, Italy
INTRODUCTION
Stand at the curved end of the Circus Maximus and look towards the Tiber. The grassy floor runs straight between the Palatine and Aventine hills, with enough room for two long stretches of track and a barrier between them. The valley still gives away the shape of the stadium, even though most of its seating has disappeared.
In imperial Rome, spectators came here to see teams of horses and drivers race around the same circuit. They could recognise a faction from the colour of a tunic and follow the laps by watching counters beside the track.
This walk picks out the starting end, the line of the course and the remains at the far bend. Our Rome history and travel guide puts the site in the context of the wider city.
KEY HISTORICAL MOMENT
After repeated fires, Trajan rebuilt and enlarged the Circus Maximus. The work gave the stadium its most extensive imperial form by 103 CE. Pliny the Younger praised both the new building and the emperor’s willingness to watch in public view. Trajan had created a larger venue and a conspicuous place for a ruler to meet the gaze of the city.
ORIGINS
The long valley between the Palatine and Aventine provided room for racing close to the centre of Rome. The historian Livy credited King Tarquinius Priscus with setting aside places for senators and knights to watch from wooden stands. He wrote centuries after Rome’s kings, and his account preserves a Roman tradition about the venue’s beginnings.
Racing belonged to the public games, or ludi, staged as part of religious festivals. The circus could also accommodate ceremonies and other spectacles. Its length and the slopes on either side made the valley particularly well suited to events that drew large crowds.
Julius Caesar enlarged the Circus in the late Republic and provided permanent infrastructure. A ditch separated the spectators from the arena, which also hosted wild animal shows. Later emperors altered the layout and seating. The site visitors see today reflects a succession of building projects across the same narrow valley.
CHARIOTS AND CROWDS
Chariots waited behind starting gates called carceres. Once released, the drivers competed for position before rounding the turning posts. A typical race ran for seven laps, and the four-horse quadriga was a favourite. Lap counters let spectators keep track as the teams passed the same stretches of seating again and again.
Hugging the inside line shortened the distance around each bend. It also left less room for a wheel to clear the turning post or a rival. A light chariot helped a team accelerate, but an overturned vehicle could throw its driver or leave him tangled in the reins.
Four established factions raced as the Reds, Whites, Blues and Greens. Their colours gave the crowd an allegiance that could outlast any individual driver. The factions supplied horses and equipment as well as drivers, whose successes depended on the people who trained and cared for the teams.
In a letter to Calvisius, Pliny the Younger joked that the fans would change whom they cheered if the drivers swapped colours in mid-race. He had little patience for the sport, but his complaint captures how easily spectators recognised their side from the stands.
ACROSS CENTURIES
Tacitus placed the start of the fire of 64 CE among shops near the Circus, where goods readily caught alight. The blaze moved along the valley and into the city. The shops help explain how a stadium drew business beyond the races themselves.
The Circus continued to be used long after the western imperial court fell. A race meeting held by the Ostrogothic king Totila around 550 CE is the last one recorded there. Staging a meeting still offered a ruler a familiar way to address Rome through a public spectacle.
The valley went back to agricultural and other uses. The medieval Torre della Moletta belongs to that later landscape. Its name recalls a small mill, a reminder that water and usable ground continued to shape what happened here.
Gasworks, warehouses and workshops occupied parts of the site in the nineteenth century. Work to create an archaeological park began in the twentieth. The open ground visitors cross today is the result of those clearances and excavations.
INTERESTING FACTS
An inscription for Gaius Appuleius Diocles records 1,462 wins in 4,257 starts over a career of 24 years. A driver from Lusitania, he raced for the Whites and Greens before joining the Reds. His record is unusually detailed, down to the ways he won, including races in which he took the lead late.
Eggs and dolphins served as lap counters at the Circus. These large markers could be seen from the stands, where a spectator had to follow several teams through repeated turns.
Livy records the installation of wooden eggs in 174 BCE. Cassius Dio credits Agrippa with adding dolphins more than a century later. For the race audience, they also answered the practical question of how much of the contest remained.
Augustus brought an Egyptian obelisk to Rome in 10 BCE. Constantius II installed a second one at the Circus in 357 CE. Both were recovered and re-erected elsewhere under Pope Sixtus V. The Augustan obelisk now stands in Piazza del Popolo, and the later arrival stands outside San Giovanni in Laterano.
The starting stalls stood on a curve at the end nearest the Tiber. Their arrangement helped compensate for the different angles at which teams left their stalls and approached the racing line. It addressed a problem created by the shape of the course: how to give several teams a fair run into the race.
WHAT TO SEE & DO
Begin at the north-west end, towards Piazza della Bocca della Verità. Look down the length of the ground towards the Torre della Moletta. This was the end from which the chariots set out, with the gates across the short side of the stadium.
The stalls themselves are gone from view. Use the width of the valley to picture where the teams had to spread out before converging on the track.
Walk south-east along the public edge on the Aventine side. Look across to the Palatine, where the ruins of the imperial palace rise above the valley. The bank helps show where spectators once looked down onto the course.
From partway along, the course’s proportions become clearer. There was room for sustained speed on the straights, while each end brought the drivers close to the turning posts.
Continue to the south-east bend, near Piazza di Porta Capena. The excavated brickwork and passages here give the clearest sense of the structure beneath the seats. Take in the outline from outside, or use the separate archaeological entrance to follow the marked route when it is open.
Inside, look at how the surviving galleries and rooms fit around the curve. Some of the rooms facing the outer passage once housed commercial activity.
The galleries served a different purpose, carrying spectators up towards the tiers. Seeing both from the route helps explain how the stadium fitted public circulation and trade into the same bend.
At the same end, pick out the square medieval tower above the lower Roman remains. It is the most prominent standing landmark within the old curve and a useful reference point when looking back along the stadium.
The tower belongs to the archaeological visit. If the upper floor is open, access is by an internal staircase. The elevated view takes in the excavated bend and the long valley beyond it.
WHY VISIT?
The Circus is rewarding if you like to work out what a building did from the space it occupied. Walk the length of one side and you can see why this valley suited racing, how spectators could follow a whole lap and where the traffic of people and horses had to converge.
Pair it with the Colosseum if you want to compare two kinds of Roman entertainment. The amphitheatre drew the eye towards a central arena. At the Circus, the action kept moving past the same spectators and away again.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
The Circus Maximus runs between the Aventine and Palatine hills. Circo Massimo on Metro Line B serves the south-east end, near Piazza di Porta Capena and the archaeological entrance. If you arrive by Metro, walk to the Tiber end first to follow the route above, or visit the stops in reverse.
The open grounds are normally free to visit. The enclosed archaeological area at the curved end has its own entrance, opening hours and capacity limits. Check the city’s notices before setting out, especially if a large event is scheduled on the public grounds.
The excavated area generally opens Tuesday to Sunday and closes earlier in winter. Last entry precedes closing time. The heritage authority recommends booking ahead.
The standard archaeological ticket and the immersive Circo Maximo Experience are listed separately, so check which visit you are booking. Consult the city’s official visitor information for current hours, prices and the ticket link.
Allow about 30–45 minutes for the outdoor walk and roughly another hour for the excavated area and tower if open. These are editorial estimates. The valley floor is exposed, and some surfaces are uneven. The tower has stairs. Contact the site in advance if you need a step-free route through the excavations.
For a short stop, the view from the edge of the curved end gives you the tower, the exposed walls and the length of the track from one position.
Location
Between the Palatine and Aventine hills, Rome
Site type
Ancient racecourse and archaeological area
Imperial rebuilding
Under Trajan, by 103 CE
Typical race
Seven laps
Best-known chariot
Quadriga, drawn by four horses
Racing factions
Reds, Whites, Blues and Greens
Standing landmark
Medieval Torre della Moletta
Suggested visit
30–45 minutes outdoors, extra for excavations
Plan your walk and check admission to the excavations.
EXPLORE MORE
Explore the city beyond the racecourse with our Rome guide.
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